New Cancer Center In Norton, Va., Brings Comfort To Chemo

By Gary Gray
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: June 15, 2008

Wellmont Health System’s new $6.5 million, state-of-the-art Southwest Virginia Cancer Center in Norton, Va., will open its doors Monday.

The new 18,000-square-foot center, located at 671 U.S. Highway 58 East, will be unlike any other facility in the region, with more than 11,000 square feet dedicated to medical oncology.

When officials broke ground at the new site last July, Richard Salluzzo, Wellmont’s former president and CEO, announced three main goals: “Offer the best physicians, the latest technology and an emphasis on patient safety.”

“He was exactly right,” said Ron Prewitt, Wellmont senior vice president of business development. “The idea is to make patients as comfortable as possible. Keep in mind, it may take up to eight hours to receive their chemotherapy treatments.

“Also, as part of Wellmont Health System and the Regional Cancer Network, both centers have access to the best medical centers, clinics and physician offices throughout the region.”

Wellmont research revealed that 10,000 trips could be saved each year by people who would have to travel to the next closest cancer center, Prewitt added. 

The existing cancer center, located on Trent Street just across the highway, has been serving patients for 13 years and will remain open after the new facility begins operations.

Patients will continue to receive radiation treatment at the Trent Street center, with future plans to move radiation therapy services to the new cancer center.

“For the next four months, the existing center will continue to deliver some treatment services as others are transferred to the new facility,” Prewitt said. “After that, we will be relocating radiation oncology from there into a new 7,000-sqaure-foot area at the new center.”

The new facility’s exterior resembles a lodge, and its interior offers roomy common areas that lead to individualized treatment rooms.

“It’s been very crowded in the building we’ve been working in, and there’s very little room for facilities,” said David Miller, the center’s medical director.

The new center blends in with the natural surroundings and provides a sense of spaciousness, especially in the lobby, where family members can congregate in privacy, Miller added.

“I think our patients deserve this,” he said of the comfort the new center provides. “Right now, patients undergoing chemotherapy face each other with only a curtain separating them. Now there will be more privacy, and I believe that makes them feel more safe and hopeful.”

Besides the expansion and advanced technological features, the new center offers 20 chemotherapy “infusion chairs” – 12 more chairs than the existing center. 

The spacious new treatment rooms are also each equipped with televisions and a stereo system.

“The infusion chairs are where patients receive their treatments, but they’re actually La-Z-boy recliners,” said Jenifer Carroll, practice administrator at the center. “There’s a large flat-screen TV for each one.”

Johnston Memorial Hospital also has a cancer treatment center in Abingdon, but the new center should not pull patients away, said Brook Lambert, JMH director of communications and marketing.

“The JMH Cancer Center’s radiation oncology opened in May 2007, and the medical oncology service opened in March [2008],” she said. “We do not expect the center in Norton to have any significant affect on our center or patients.”

Three Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentucky hospitals – Mountain View Regional Medical Center in Norton, Lee Regional Medical Center in Pennington Gap and Jenkins Community Hospital in Jenkins, Ky., joined Wellmont and the Regional Cancer Network last year.

Lonesome Pine Hospital in Big Stone Gap, Va., has been a member of Wellmont since 1997.

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